This invention relates to a system and method for utilizing prepared solid and semi-solid organic waste materials as a primary fuel in a full suspension or semi-suspension fired conventional combustion boiler in a manner that improves the system's efficiency through improved combustion and an overall energy effectiveness. The process also reduces the quantity of adverse environmental residual effluents.
Disposal of organic waste materials continues to be an increasingly critical problem. Efforts are being made to develop equipment and processes for disposal of the wastes through improved energy recovery techniques.
Prepared solid waste (refuse derived fuel) incineration technology is well known for use as a supplemental fuel in the utility industry for co-combustion with coal, however attempts to utilize the mixed material as a base primary fuel are limited and far from being optimum.
Organic waste fuels almost always contain non-combustible solid inorganic materials, e.g., glass and sand, which cannot be incinerated and therefore detract from the thermal equivalence of the base fuel and in addition have a detrimental impact upon the process equipment. The inert non-combustible solids cause boiler tube erosion and slagging in addition to increasing the particulate loadings to the effluent gas scrubbers.